A reference to Dr. Guggenbühl's _Letter to Lord Ashley on Cretinism_, and to the reviews of the subject, of which I can name two in the _Athenæum_, one in 1848, p. 1077., and another on June 21, 1851, will, I think, show that there are no "races of Cretins," though the disease--for it is nothing but a disease--will sometimes largely affect even families. One of the principal characteristics of the disease is a disgusting goître, enlarging the neck to such a size, that a part of it becomes pendulous to the length of upwards of a foot, and can even be flung over the shoulder, and is, indeed, often carried there. It is very commonly accompanied by idiocy; and, in fact, the Cretin is one of the most distressing objects that can be seen. The disease is very common in some parts of Switzerland, especially, I believe, the Valais; some attribute it to the water: and probably climatic influences, in conjunction with the deleterious elements contained in the water, and the frequent intermarriage of the villagers, and deficient or unwholesome diet, are the chief sources to which it must be traced. It is curable; at the institution on the Abendberg the treatment is very successful. The disease never appears above a certain level, and disappears when, under favourable circumstances, the patient is raised to that level. Cases have been found in Lancashire, and at Chiselborough in Somersetshire, and at other places which present predisposing causes resembling those of Switzerland. I do not think that AJAX'S suggestion "credentes" as the derivation of Cretin can be substantiated. Is it a term at all connected with diversity of religious opinion and consequent persecution? In the Alps, Cretinism is regarded with pity and kindness, as RUSTICUS truly remarks. The term _cagot_ is current in the French with the meaning of an impostor, a hypocrite; "celui qui a une dévotion fausse ou mal-entendue," is the meaning in the _Dictionnaire de l'Académie_; also a bigot. It is altogether a religious term. May I suggest that they are a relique of the old population of the mountain vallies imperfectly Christianised, therefore despised by the more enlightened population of the neighbourhood,--half-civilised, perhaps, and physically degraded by the same causes which have given the goître and the idiocy of the Cretin to the inhabitants of the Valais. If so, they may be Iberian, or what is commonly called Celtiberian, a term which I think there is reason for abandoning. I shall be glad to hear more of these _Cagots_; about the Cretins a good deal is known, and with much certainty, but nothing, as far as I can learn, that tends to identify them historically with any religious sect.